WND Wonders Whether Obama Wants To Infect Americans With HIV

Far-right website WND teased an article on the possibility that gay men will soon be allowed to donate blood with a banner asking, “Does Obama Want You Infected With This?”

From WND's home page:

WND's December 3 article noted that a federal advisory panel is considering lifting the blanket ban on donations by gay men, in effect since 1985. The website hyped one researcher's support for the ban, citing statistics showing that men who have sex with men constitute the majority of HIV infections to justify prohibiting all gay men from donating blood, regardless of whether they practice safe sex or are monogamous:

Should homosexual men - a group with the highest HIV-infection rates in the nation - be allowed to donate blood?

That's the question the federal government is considering this week as it re-evaluates whether it should lift the 30-year ban on homosexual blood donation.

On Thursday, members of the Department of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Blood and Tissue Safety and Availability will revisit the issue.

But a leading pathologist is warning that the move would heighten the risk of spreading HIV to other Americans.

[...]

Dr. Jay Brooks, an expert in blood banking and transfusion at the University of Florida's College of Medicine, told WND the problem with “donations from men who've had sex with men is that they have a much higher prevalence of HIV than the heterosexual community.”

“They have a much higher prevalence,” he emphasized.

Conveniently, WND omitted the fact that the American Medical Association (AMA) opposes the ban, calling it “discriminatory” and “not based on sound science.” Under current policy, a heterosexual woman who has had intercourse with an AIDS- or HIV-infected partner can give blood after a one-year waiting period. Any gay man who has had sex since 1977, however, can never donate. According to the AMA, a case-by-case approach makes far more sense than a sweeping ban.

Other countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Japan, and South Africa have already lifted bans on gay blood donations.